Students of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law have in the period of 3-8 February 2012 took part at the VII annual International Commercial Mediation Moot Competition which was held in Paris. Despite the high level of knowledge and skills demonstrated within the four qualification rounds at the Moot they did not, regretfully, secured a place in the 1/8 finals. The team that represented the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law was composed of the following fourth year students: Bojana Todorović, Jovana Lakić, Dubravka Stijović and Dušan Mitrović. They were coached for the Moot by Mr. Marko Jovanović and Mr. Uroš Živković, lecturers at the Faculty. During the course of their preparations they were assisted by Prof. Dr Vladimir Pavić and Ms. Milena Đorđević, LL.M. as well.

The International Commercial Mediation Moot is organized by the Amicable Dispute Resolution department of the International Chamber of Commerce. The Moot takes place annually since 2006 in the month of February. The goal of the Moot is to help training law students to better meet the dispute resolution needs of today’s cross-cultural global market, to display the practical aspects of mediation to law students and to promote mediation as one of the methods of alternative settlement of international commercial disputes. This year more than 400 students participated at the Moot. They were gathered in 66 teams  from 32 countries from all over the world. It is important to emphasize that the participation at the Moot is subject to approval of the Organizing Committee. Namely, after the call for participants is closed, the Organizing Committee proceeds to the selection of the teams which are to be admitted to participate at the Moot. In making this decision, the Organizing Committee gives primacy to the teams which have previously participated at the Moot and to the teams representing the universities that have included mediation in their curricula. Furthermore, the Organizing Committee seeks to achieve a balanced regional representation. Therefore, the very participation at the Moot itself already represents a privilege and recognition to our Faculty.

The students try to solve hypothetical international commercial disputes by means of mediation. In order to do so, they engage in a real time mediation session during which they are assisted by a professional mediator. Their representation skills, problem-solving approach, the way of accommodating confidential information and the ability to handle different cultural approaches to mediation are assessed by a panel of two judges, who are also professionals in the field of mediation. After four qualification rounds, the top 16 teams advance to the elimination rounds which eventually lead to the winner of the Moot.

This year’s problems revolved around the international sale of goods, joint venture agreements in the field of pharmaceuticals industry and service agreements.Our students competed against the teams of the University of Ottawa (Canada), Rutgers University (USA), Gujarat University(India) and the Erasmus University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). The winner of this competition was the University of South Texas from the USA.

The participation of our students at the Mediation Moot was financially supported by the Institute for textbook publishing (Zavod za udžbenike).